All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.
Twitter’s traffic celebrity PigSpotter has hired a lawyer and approached the director of public prosecutions to have charges against him dropped. The Twitter user, who faces trouble with the law for warning motorists about speed traps, is being represented by lawyer Karl Schuler.
JSE-listed technology group Altech saw its profit fall for the six months ended 31 August 2010. Releasing its interim results on Tuesday, the company reported a decrease in headline earnings per share to 206c from 292c a year earlier.
Gijima’s top line has slid 2,4% in the past year, reflecting tougher trading condition in the SA’s technology industry, says analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. Growth in managed service revenue did not quite compensate for a decline in professional service revenue.
Communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has not been reinstated to her position, according to a statement issued on Monday by the office of communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. The statement says Harold Wesso will continue as acting director-general for now. This is despite the fact that Mohlala returned to work on Monday, only to find she had been locked out of her office.
Communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala is set to meet with public service & administration minister Richard Baloyi at 4.30pm on Monday in a bid to resolve a tense standoff over her job. Mohlala is threatening legal action if the meeting with Baloyi does not lead to an outcome satisfactory to her and if the communications department does not unlock her office.
Ousted communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has been locked out of her office at the department of communications despite being granted access to the building in Pretoria this morning. In the latest dramatic development, Mohlala has given the department half an hour — until about 12pm today, Monday — to open her office.
The Mobile TV Consortium has been granted a licence to test the Korean standard for mobile television, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), in SA. The consortium, controlled by businessman Richard Moloko’s Moloko Investment Group and backed by high-profile shareholders including former Telkom chairman Shirley Lue Arnold, says it expects to have a service ready for pilot in about a month.
Investment in information technology will be a key focus area for US retailing giant Wal-Mart if it proceeds with its nonbinding offer to buy SA retail group Massmart in a R30bn deal. Massmart, which owns Makro and other discount stores, told shareholders on Monday morning that Wal-Mart Stores had made a preliminary, nonbinding proposal, which could lead to the world’s largest retailer acquiring the JSE-listed group for R148/share.
Sparks are expected to fly at the department of communications on Monday when ousted director-general Mamodupi Mohlala is set to return to work. Mohlala says she is determined to reclaim her old job after department of public service & administration apparently failed to find her an equivalent position in another government department.
Police and governments around the world need to collaborate more closely to develop the security legislation and training needed to combat a growing tide of cybercrime. That’s according to Microsoft’s global chief security advisor, Roger Halbheer.
